In this rare look into the diplomatic life as it is actually led, Barbara Sullivan shares her journey from shy, inhibited girl from the Bronx to senior ranking U. S. Foreign Service officer. Coming from the 1950s, when the goal of most women was to marry, have children and live in the suburbs, Sullivan's magic carpet ride from a simple, working class upbringing in New York to a string of captivating locales, such as Indonesia, West Africa and Saudi Arabia is breathtaking. But the real genious of this book is how Sullivan generously and self-deprecatingly shares the joys and sorrows of raising a family of five children while maintaining a lifelong love affair with her husband. All this is accomplished while serving in the trenches as a career diplomat in the embassies of the world's less glamorous, but much more exciting and dangerous places. This book shares a unique perspective of a life well lived.